All right, I’ve put it off long enough, but the demands of a core curriculum have finally forced me to take Intro. Theology. Being a weak bordering on strong atheist, this has presented me with a problem, a 50 minute problem, that I must solve three times a week, namely how to fill the class time.
I’ve thought of a few possibilities. One would be to spend the time working on my speech/debate skills by arguing points I find unfounded. But I don’t want to be the one jack-hole in the back that argues everything and wont shut up. (it would probably come to that with this professor.) Alternatively I could spend the time preparing for my other classes. I did this during Org. Chem. I, and actually wound up doing better than in Org Chem II where I took notes each class. But the way the class is set up it would be patently obvious that I am deliberately ignoring the professor.
Any other suggestions. I’ve also tried paying attention for any little bit of factual, testable material, but it just doesn’t take in this class. What would you, or have you done in similar situations?
Oh, and skipping all together is out, there is an attendance policy that makes it very easy to fail if you skip more than 7 or 8 classes (especially if you have been writing papers that fall under the category of "Ask a stupid question. . . ")
Uh, how about actually paying attention? I’ve always thought theology was the most interesting part of any religion, along with historical/literary study of the documents, like the Bible. What do you talk about in this class?
I’m with asterion here. If this class is anything like the theology classes I’ve taken, the material will center on the historical bases for the religions being studied, not on debates concerning the truthfulness of the source books. I took a Bible as literature class last semester that I found extremely interesting, even though I am an atheist. Like it or not, the world’s religions have had a profound impact on the development of every culture through time.
Just listen; you might learn something. You’re paying for it, and you might as well get something out of it, right?
I have the same problem with philosophy. I just take my laptop in and with the wireless connection an all, I come onto here and browse around. If you don’t have a laptop, then obviously you can’t do that.
I take it you’re in college right? I find it weird that a college would actually care whether you show up to class or not. But then again, even at my high school, they didn’t care. I say your best bet is to work on homework from other courses, or review your notes. You can always take a book to class and catch up on some “reading just for the fun of it”.
My SO watched Spiderman on his laptop in one of his classes. WIthout the sound on, of course. It took them three lectures to do, but him and everyone sitting behind him found it much more interesting. Of course, this course consists of the prof reading the overheads to them without any elaboration - something they can do on their own. I don´ t know what other movie is on the agenda for the semester.
I should probably mention that this is a group of 90 or so students in an angled room, and they’re all computer geeks, so a laptop isn’t all that suspicious as many people use them to take notes with.
Invent languages. 
I am so a dork.
WRS
Draw…
Catch up on your letter writing–as long as you wait to put the endearment at the top, it looks almost exactly like note-taking. Even if you don’t send them off later, they’re fun to read. After moving recently, I found a few old letters and read through them chuckling, “Oh yeah, that guy was such a knob.”
At Sac State, I had a lot of classes that could have been interesting but weren’t, either because of a bad teacher or students who misinterpreted the whole tuition-class enrollment thing as some sort of avant garde group therapy, with guaranteed emoting time. So many times I wanted to scream, “Shut up! No one cares! You’re rambling and not even remotely relevant!”
You could learn to knit, and defend the action (if even called on it) with various quotes from the bible (re:working with hands) Ghandi (big fan of the fibre arts, he) or the religious text of your choice. I knit in every lecture class, and some discussion classes.
Or, whenever you feel an argument welling up, write the points down–you’ll get some satisfaction out of it, you won’t drive everybody crazy, and you can be as smart-assed as you want.
This is the reason I hate attendance policies. Let me toss out some of my favorite coping strategies:
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Write, if you like writing. I’ve actually gotten some fine work done in the middle of a boring class.
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Draw. Work on your art skills.
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I find watching the girl in front of me play Solitaire on her laptop to be greatly enjoyable. Find someone with a laptop or…
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Bring a laptop of your own.
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In one of these classes, my friend had the huge registration book out and was busily filling out his class schedule…
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And my other friend had 3 business books on his desk, he was doing his homework. Of course, these two really pissed off the professor, but she was an idiot and no one cared.
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I was writing, by the way.
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I know a guy who brought a Game Boy to class. If you keep it below the desk, it looks like you’re taking notes. Or at least being studious.
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In high school, a guy I know always wore long sleeved shirts. He broke some headphones so all he had was the muff/speaker thing and the wire down to the Walkman. He’d run the wire up the sleeve of his shirt, cup the speaker in his hand, and then rest his head on his hand while he stared at the teacher. He listened to music, The Game, audiobooks, had a grand old time of it. Never got caught, either.
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Can you say “handheld portable TV?” I knew you could.
Ultimately, the size of the class and classroom will determine what you have to work with. And thanks for not being that idiot in the back who has to argue with the professor over everything. I hate those people.
Oh, I forgot one of my favorites. Work on emoting. When I was taking an Acting class, I’d work on my expressions, getting more and more ludicrous as class wore on.
It’s been many years (I graduated high school in 1961), but I used to draw cartoons, sketches and caricatures of other students in boring classes. I still have boxes of drawings on lined paper in ballpoint pen.
Later (much later) I attended a religious college (I’m agnostic, and even then was the campus heretic), and there in lectures and in services (I was in the chorale, so I had to go to at least the sermonet, sing, and then leave as the chorale filed back to their seats) I invented a cypher so I could comment on lectures and sermons without revealing my heresy. It was a simple substitution of invented symbols for letters. I even had many letters with two or more symbols so double letters wouldn’t give away my writing to anybody but a cryptographer. Punctuation marks also had substitute symbols so it wasn’t even obvious where sentences began and ended. I wasted a lot of time. Now I wish I had it back.
It’s a good thing you’re not in my son’s genetics class of 200. He said a couple of days ago the instructor walked all the way up the long, steep flight of stairs in the auditorium and removed a newspaper from a student and then retured to his lecturn and told them how that behavior made him feel. No wonder there are so few good teachers left.
My favorite moment like this was when a professor of mine actually answered a student’s cellphone (after it rang in class). And it was the guy’s mother! Hee hee hee!
Transcript:
“Hello?..No, he’s not available. Well, he’s in class. Uh huh. His mother? Oh, hi mom! Hmm? Oh, I’m Doctor Soandso. Psychology. Uh huh. Yes, he’s in my class now. Alright, I’ll tell him. Have a good day. hangs up Your mom says to turn off your cell phone in class…” (laughter ensues, guy shrinks into his chair)
I was young and callow. Now I’m old and tallow (candle fat?). Seriously, though, interesting teachers prevented even the desire to doodle or write in class. Are un-ingaged students responsible for boring teachers? Or is it the other way around?
That’s un-engaged students, of course. I can’t believe I did that! :o
I say it’s the teacher’s fault. If you’re going to do nothing but read out of the book and put in some “Miss 2 classes and you FAIL!” attendance policy, you can’t get pissy when students show up to class (because of YOUR policy!) and don’t pay attention.
I’ve found that the best/most interesting teachers I have had in college have been the ones that don’t require attendance. For example, my Film professor. You can show up only to take the tests, if you want. You’ll fail, because he pulls 80% of his stuff from in-class stuff, but you can do it. And I think this is the way class SHOULD be taught. Missing class should be a penalty on its own. If you have a car breakdown/get sick/whatever, you shouldn’t have to suffer double the damage cause some frustrated academic wants a full classroom of bored souls staring at him/her.
This might help you see where I’m coming from. The first day of class the prof. defined Theology as “a look at religion as an engaged person, as a person who practices that particular religion” and its goal is to help Christians teach Christians to live better Christian lives. So, most of what we talk about is how does one truly get to know God. Do you have to seclude yourself, or should God enter every part of your every day life.
This was compared to Religious Studies which “tries to look at religion as a disengaged observer.” This is more along the lines of what I had in HS (learning about different church documents, how the different Christian religions came to be, and bible exegesis) I thought this class would be more like that, since both are Jesuit institutions.
The suggestions are good though. I had forgotten the possibility of game playing. I’ll have to consider breaking out the old Ti-86. Anything larger is out of the question though. No one has ever brought a lap top to any class I have ever been in, the class is too small (about 20 students), and I dont have one.
At school I used to get nicely distracted when I could see a girls bra straps through her blouse…but that was back when my hormones were going mental 
The Ti-86 is a boon to slackers. We had everything from simple Breakout to Doom back in high school.
I couldn’t live with not being able to draw in classes. All of my notes are covered in sketches and doodles - I do some of my best work in classes.
Fortunately, I’m studying design and in board meetings (I’m a student representative) everyone, including the dean, does this. So I guess it’s OK.